Shameless Bandit

"You old tortoise, stop being a coward! Come out and fight me like a real man!"

Mohai was having a headache since he had to provoke the tortoise to return to the fight.

He knew from his past life that a lot of monsters in the game were smart, but Rexus was a little too smart.

Mohai could not do anything about Rexus if the tortoise remained in the water. Even if he wanted to take the Magical Spring Water, first of all, he did not have a container. Secondly, there was a buffer to collect the Magical Spring Water, so he would have to wait for the progress bar to fill, and a simple attack from Rexus could interrupt his collecting process.

"I'm a tortoise and it's my nature to hide in my shell! This is actually a decent defensive method for us tortoises! I remember when I was young, I used to compete with my fellow tortoises to see who could shrink their heads into their shells faster. The fastest one would be the strongest and I was No. 1!"

Rexus was not moved. He started to tell a story about the perks of being a tortoise and even told Mohai about his glorious past. He was not stupid and he knew what Mohai was trying to do.

This bandit leader was quite nimble. Indeed, Rexus had high Defence and massive HP, but his Attack Speed was horrendous. He could not even hit Mohai, let alone kill him. His hits earlier on struck Mohai because the latter had allowed Rexus to hit him.

Following the command from the bandit leader, the bandit goons used their skills on him and retreated right away. They would probably jump up for the second wave of attack after their skills had finished cooling down.

With the bandit leader around, he could not kill the bandit goons with his skills. The moment he used a skill, the cunning bandit leader would bash him on the head and snatch his equipment.

Even though the equipment was not suitable for a tortoise like him, they were still valuable.

No matter how Rexus thought about it, fighting the bandit leader would do him no good. He was not that stupid to waste energy tangling with him.

Mohai was rendered speechless by Rexus' sneering at him. He knew that words were no longer useful against such a shameless tortoise.

He might have evolved his template and become a bandit leader, but the levels of his equipment were still pitifully low.

Before reaching the lake where the Magical Spring Water was, Mohai had tried using [Heavy Bash] on the wild wolves at the Monolith Stronghold and the white eagles on the Magical Grassland, but he realized that they had no equipment on them at all.

Since [Heavy Bash] worked on Rexus who owned suitable equipment, Mohai actually planned to snatch several more pieces of equipment.

Even if the equipment was not suitable, whatever he snatched would still be valuable.

Mohai's original plan was to rob Rexus clean and use the loot that he could not utilize to trade for the Magical Spring Water. Other than that, since the Blessing of Isabelle was still active, he planned to command eight of his men and spend two hours beating Rexus into submission.

However, Rexus decisively returned to the water like a cowardly tortoise, thus Mohai's plans went down the drain in an instant.

However, Mohai was not nervous at all. He sat down on the ground and moved on to phase 2 of his plan.

"Hey, Rexus, have you heard of the Zero Degree Ice Shard?"

After a surprised squeal, Rexus resurfaced from the lake and stared at Mohai with a graceful gaze. "The Zero Degree Ice Shard? Where did you learn about this item?!"

The Zero Degree Ice Shard was Rexus' secret and there was no way that the bandit leader could have heard about it!

"That's not the point. I'm asking you what can you give me if I help you retrieve the Zero Degree Ice Shard," asked Mohai.

"A bottle of Magical Spring Water and 1 Faith credit, and I have another black iron equipment here that might be useful to you. If you can get me the Zero Degree Ice Shard, all these will be yours!"

Because the Zero Degree Ice Shard was like a drug to Rexus, he answered swiftly and was even willing to give 1 Faith credit away for it. His desire for the ice shard was self-explanatory.

"Do you have any gold coins?"

"You aren't an Adventurer. What can you do with gold coins?" Rexus was baffled by the question.

"Stop asking so much."

"I can give you 2 Gold coins," Rexus said as he moved away from the topic.

"This lake produces Magical Crystals, doesn't it? I'll take one as well."

"You even know about the Magical Crystal? Fine, if you can bring me the Zero Degree Ice Shard, I can throw in one more Magical Crystal." Rexus went all in for the Zero Degree Ice Shard. The Magical Crystal was considered a rare resource in the lake because of its low production rate.

"Fine, I'll tell you where the Zero Degree Ice Shard is and you will have to give me two bottles of Magical Spring Water, 1 Faith credit, one black iron equipment, 2 Gold coins, and a Magical Crystal."

"De— Wait, what? You son of a…You are trying to trade with me by just telling me where it is?" Rexus instinctively wanted to close the deal, but he suddenly realized that something was not right. After he made sure he had heard correctly, he could not hold back his fury.

"Old tortoise, don't get all riled up now. Think about it. Other than Faith credits, the items that you are giving me are useless to you, but the Zero Degree Ice Shard is different. With the ice shard, your powers will come back to you and you don't have to be stuck in this little lake and wait for your end anymore! Those Adventurers have reached the Land of Origin, and in a few days, they will be here. By then, with your lousy strength, you might have to be tortured for a few hundred thousand times. If you regain your powers, you won't have to worry anymore. And if you know where the ice shard is, retrieving it will be a lot easier since it can save a lot of your time. No matter how I look at it, you aren't losing anything in this deal," Mohai patiently elaborated although he planned to trick the old tortoise.

"Hmph! Who the hell believes you? I don't even know whether you are telling me the truth! The most I can offer is a bottle of Magical Spring Water for the info!" Rexus was somehow moved by Mohai's tempting offer, but only an idiot would trade that many items for unverified news.

"I can prove that I'm telling the truth."

"Prove it? How the hell can you prove you are telling the truth? Don't tell me you heard it from someone! Unless you bring me the Zero Degree Ice Shard, I'm not believing a word from your mouth," condemned Rexus.

"I'll tell you a story, and after that, you will believe me." Mohai smiled.

"Hoho? A story to prove the truth? You are making me curious. What kind of story is that?" Rexus was in disbelief, but his curiosity got the best of him.

"Once upon a time, there was a tortoise in the southern sea. He was a perverted one though, and one day, when the king of the Tortoise Kingdom was away, the tortoise hooked up with the young queen…"

"Okay, stop! I believe you! Stop the story at once!"

Mohai had barely started his story when Rexus screamed to stop him. The tortoise looked at the bandit leader with shock written all over his expression.

It was Rexus' secret, one that no one should know, and he was very far away from the southern sea. How could the young fellow have known about this secret buried in his heart?

"Here are your items! Tell me where the Zero Degree Ice Shard is at once!"

Rexus tossed a bunch of items from the lake onto the shore. He did not want to spend another second with this bandit leader who knew so much about his background.

There was a wrist guard of black iron quality, two bottles of Magical Spring Water, and a sky blue Magical Crystal, and Rexus even transferred 1 Faith credit and 2 Gold coins to him.

"Hey, my story is enticing. I think you should reward me with another Magical Crystal…"

"You b*stard! Here! Tell me now and I don't want to see your face again!" Rexus' face turned pale as he thought about how he had never seen such a greedy and shameless person before.

"It lies in the hands of the Magma Golem. Deep in his territory, there's a crystal box and the Zero Degree Ice Shard is kept in there."

"The Magma Golem! I knew it! That b*stard took my Zero Degree Ice Shard!" Rexus was furious as he cursed at the Magma Golem. "And you, you little b*stard, get the hell out of my face! I don't want to see you again!"

Splash! 

Rexus jumped back into the lake and never showed up anymore.

Mohai was in a good mood since he got quite a harvest, so he did not want to be calculative with the old tortoise anymore.

After Mohai walked away, Rexus popped his head out from the water and screamed loudly to vent his anger at Mohai's despicable actions, "This is daylight robbery!"

…

'SinceI told Rexus the location of the Zero Degree Ice Shard in advance, the mission distribution will surely change from now. The mission might be completed by some Thief player or a party and no longer by the people of the Huaxia Empire.' Mohai was in deep thought as he made his way back to the hideout.

He did not tell Rexus the location of the Zero Degree Ice Shard just to get the Magical Spring Water. 

In his past life, Rexus had distributed many missions to players to retrieve the Zero Degree Ice Shard for him. In the end, someone from the Huaxia Empire killed the Magma Golem for the first time and found the Zero Degree Ice Shard in the crystal chest. 

This time around, since Rexus already knew where it was, he would probably ask players to steal it from the Magma Golem instead of killing it.

There were many players under the three major guilds, but there were even more players who were not with them. At the early stage of the game, there were only minor differences between players. Therefore, the odds of some other players completing the mission first was higher than before.

A change in the mission would not shake the grand scope of things, but the three major guilds would get fewer benefits, so Mohai would get stronger.

…

Upgrading the Reincarnation Pool was a simple process. All he needed to do was toss all the required materials in, and it would automatically enter the upgrading process. While the pool was upgrading, it could not be used for anything else.

Mohai poured in 40 pieces of black iron ore and a bottle of Magical Spring Water. The water in the pool started boiling and steam rose into the air.

"The upgrading process needs three hours. The first day is almost over. It's time to get some equipment."

Going through his activity log, Mohai decided to carry out the next step of his plan.

He had tricked Rexus of two pieces of black iron equipment, but it was far from enough.

Be it for his personal use or for exchanging something else after the Reincarnation Pool finished its upgrade, Mohai had to get his hands on a larger amount of equipment.